


How Could You Leave Us

by MagiaMyst



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Hurt No Comfort, Jason dies, SO SAD, i cried a lot, i don't know how to tag this one, why did i do this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:48:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28030419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagiaMyst/pseuds/MagiaMyst
Summary: Bruce, Dick, and Alfred reacting to Jason's death.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	How Could You Leave Us

**Author's Note:**

> I can't. I just... Why did I get into this fandom? I didn't do it for this. I just wanted Jason Todd stuff, and this is what I create? Someone smite me where I sit!

Jason wasn’t supposed to die. He was just a child! A child! There was so much in life that was waiting for him. He should have gone off like Dick. he should have grown up to become his own hero. To get his own team and have so many friends. He wasn’t supposed to die. Why would the Joker do such a thing? How could that man be such a fucking monster! A stain on the world that needed to be wiped out!

Bruce held his dead son close, allowing himself to cry. Such a thing hadn’t happened since the death of his parents. His emotions had been repressed. But damn it… Jason had been the best thing in his life. Now he wasn’t going to show Bruce how amazing he could have been. He should have been less strict. He should have told the boy that he loved him, that he was proud of him. A parent shouldn’t have to bury their child.

Jason’s limp body sat in Bruce’s lap as he buried his head in the cold shoulder. The Robin suit was staining with his tears, mixing with the blood that had stopped seeping from a body that no longer had a pulse. How could he leave like this? What was he supposed to tell Dick? Alfred? Selina? He couldn’t tell them that Jason was dead. Bruce was the reason for that too. It was his fault that Jason was gone.

There would be no more lessons in foreign language. No more piano playing at the most random of times during the day. No more of that boy trying his hardest to get Bruce to laugh. Damn it! Jason was always good at that. He could get Bruce to laugh at the stupidest of things, and now he hated Jason for it. He hated the son he loved so much, because he was gone. He wasn’t going to be there anymore. He left them and Bruce was unable to do anything about it.

He had tried so hard to get to his child. He even called out for Superman to save his boy. The desperation had been that bad. So now he had another person he hated. That made four. Four people that he wanted to scorn. Joker, for taking the boy away from him. Jason, for being so foolish and leaving like this. Clark, for not coming the one time he called for his help. And himself… for being unable to stop his boy from going through such a thing.

Jason must have been so scared. He was probably thinking that Bruce would be there any moment. He was supposed to be, like every time Jason needed help. This child had broken bones, letting Bruce know that his son had been beaten so severely before dying. Had he called out for Bruce? Did he know that he was going to die? Were his last thoughts happy thoughts, or were they horrible ones? Bruce would never know.

It took so long for him to pull himself together long enough to call someone. The first person he thought of was his eldest son. Dick wasn’t going to take this well. Oh god, he had been so hard on Jason until he realized the boy was just trying to make him proud.

==========

Dick picked up the phone, just coming out of the shower. “B? What’s up?”

“Richard… I’m so sorry… I--” Bruce sounded so broken.

No… Wait… What?

“Sorry for what, Bruce?” Please no. Please. Bruce never cried. He never sounded like this. Something really horrible must have happened. “Bruce, let me talk to Jason.”

“I can’t… He can’t-- Dick, I’m so sorry. He’s-- He’s gone, Dick-- I tried to get to him. I tried! I’m so sorry!”

Richard couldn’t feel anything. His life just sort of stopped. No. He heard that wrong. It was very wrong. So wrong that he actually started laughing a little.

“Bruce, this isn’t funny…” It was a joke. A really bad joke. “Put Jason on.”

All he got in response was Bruce softly crying and apologizing.

“Bruce… Bruce please! Please just put Jason on the phone! Bruce!”

It didn’t take long for Dick to break down. He started shouting, blaming Bruce.

“What did you do!? What happened!? Bruce, you fucking asshole! I told you not to bring anymore children into this! What the fuck! HOW COULD YOU!”

Bruce simply took the verbal beating. He allowed Dick to scream his heart out, to blame him for everything. Both men were crying, with Dick screaming.

He should have been a better brother. He should have let Jason know that he loved him. The only friend the boy had was Alfred. He basically didn’t have a brother with the way Dick treated him. He wasn’t a burden. He wasn’t a replacement. He wasn’t a new son to kick Dick to the side. If anything, Dick had been shoving him away instead of trying his hardest, trying harder to let the boy know that he was a good kid.

Jason just wanted approval. He should have been there. All the kid wanted was for people to be proud of him. Fucking damn it! Dick was proud! Dick was so very proud of Jason. He had just never told him. Never let the kid know that he wanted to actually be a big brother to him. Why did he have to treat him like a nuisance. Why was he such an asshole to the poor kid!? Jay didn’t deserve that.

The phone had fallen out of his hand a while ago, but Dick paid it no mind. He fell to his knees to cry, to hold his face to quiet himself so his neighbors wouldn’t call the cops or see what was going on. One hand had his eyes covered, while the other held his mouth shut. At least he could be quiet. But Jason? God, he could only imagine the boy screaming as he went. Did he call for Bruce? For Dick? He was such a disappointment! He couldn’t keep his little brother safe!

==========

Alfred knew something was wrong. He could feel it. Maybe it was all that time in the military, gaining a sixth sense for when a comrade was down. Maybe it was the years watching over Bruce and the children. The moment that explosion went off half way across the world, ending Jason’s life, Alfred felt it. Or something. It was the feeling of death.

Half an hour had gone by with Alfred cleaning everything, even the already cleaned things. He could no longer busy himself. So he called Bruce. That was a mistake. The biggest in his long years of being alive. Worse than going to war and watching his allies drop. What he was greeted with was the soft sobs of the man he thought of as his son.

“Master Bruce? What happened?”

It had been so long since he heard the man cry. No, Bruce was not a man when he last heard him make noises such as this. Bruce was a child. He was alone, with only Alfred to care for him. These sounds were the sounds of death, of a loved one being lost.

“Alfred… I tried-- I tried so hard-- I couldn’t get to him in time… I’m so sorry…”

It was a heart attack. That’s what the pain in his chest was. His heart hurt like one, but there were no other symptoms. Please just let it be a heart attack. Please don’t let his grandchild be dead.

“What happened?” Alfred sounded stern. Tears were rolling down his cheeks, but he did everything he could to not break down. He was supposed to go long before Jason did. The child was learning so much. The flavor of that last cake was surfacing on his tongue. He could hear the vacuum going as Jason ran around the living room to clean the carpet like a madman. There was laughter in his ears, Jason’s laughter. His grandchild was far too sweet for death.

“The Joker,” was all Bruce could choke out. He sounded so broken.

“I’ll be right there.” Alfred hung up the phone to go get the plane. He needed to pick up Bruce and… no… No.

He almost sobbed as he thought of Jason’s dead body, but instead he took in a shaky breath and resumed. Breaking down would be for after he made sure the body was recovered and Bruce was home.

==========

It was raining. Of course it was, this was Gotham. Bruce had shut down by time the funeral came to be. It was like he forgot how to feel. Well, more like when Jason had died so had Bruce’s heart. It hurt those close to him to see him in such a state.

Bruce and Alfred were two of the people that carried his casket to the grave. Dick couldn’t bring himself to be there. He didn’t feel worthy to be there, not with how he had treated Jason. That obnoxious boy deserved so much more than what life had dealt him.

The Titans held their own memorial. They didn’t take it as hard as Dick did, but there had been tears shed. Everyone that Jason had touched with his joy had felt his loss. The world seemed darker. It was like Gotham would never have another sunny day. That Bl ü dhaven had lost its color.

Why would life take such a young person? No one would know, but so many were blaming Bruce for it, even Bruce himself. He should have killed the Joker. That monster never deserved to live. And if no one stopped him? Well, the last laugh very well might be made that night.

**_Rest in peace, Jason Peter Todd. You deserved so much more than this. We love and miss you.  
Bruce_ **


End file.
